Our Mission : A Developmental Transition to University Life
The mission of Summer Bridge at California State University, Los Angeles is to provide a developmental transition from high school life to university life for about 150 first generation, low-income, first year college students, of diverse ethnicity and cultures. We aim at closing some of the gap between the skills they graduated from high school with, and what is required for university study.
A developmental transition means that in "closing the gap", we will begin the level of our instruction at their current skills level, and gradually raise them to university level over six to eight weeks (depending on their progress in Math). We will not punish those harmed by the State’s educational crisis, demanding that they start at a level of work they were never prepared for.
The Bridge is organized into a learning community joining students with a skilled team of faculty, staff, counselors and assistants. The goal is both academic and personal development for every student (each class is an important part of this, and is represented on the Summer Bridge Council).